Blue Elevator Blog

Business process consulting: getting started.

Welcome to the next installment of the “Business Process Consulting” series by Blue Elevator™.  We are offering this series to both existing and future clients.  The precursors to this article are as follows: Business Process Consulting: A Primer and Business Process Consulting: Predicting Owner Success.

You may be someone who is planning to start a business or someone that is well under way.  In either case, whether you are starting a business, taking over a business, or managing a business, it can be one of the most exciting yet daunting journeys of your life.  It is an adventure in the least.  Our passion is providing business process consulting to help ensure a safe, fun, and exciting journey to your dream destination.

Business process consulting: the shortest distance between two points.

Have you heard the saying, “No matter where you go there you are?”  It’s clever.  Here’s the deal.  At any given point in time, it is possible for the entrepreneur to draw two distinct points on a map.  Those points can be defined as follows: where you are and where you want to be.  Believe it or not, when you are drifting on the “sea of business,” it’s sometimes hard to identify where exactly you are.  Furthermore, in my vast experience, I have observed that even fewer have really defined where it is they want to go.

So really three things need to be defined: 1) where you are, 2) where you want to be (and when), and 3) the underlying route you will take to get you from your present location to your final destination.

However you define your final destination, the wise entrepreneur will use business process consulting to help ensure the journey is expedient.  The shortest distance between your present location and your dream destination is a straight line – as determined by business process consulting.

For the remainder of this article, we will briefly outline these three points.

Business process consulting: Step 1. Determine where you are.

This may seem obvious – and it is.  However, it is very important that a business identifies its KPI’s (key performance indicators).  These KPI’s need to be complete, accurate, and real-time.  Part of getting to where you are going is knowing where you are.  Its not enough to have a road map, you also need a compass.   Your KPI’s are like a compass.  KPI’s need to be identified, constantly measured and evaluated, and refined to determine where you are at on your journey.

A simple example would be accounting.  Over the years, I have encountered a lot of start-up businesses (even established businesses) that had not set-up proper accounting processes and procedures.  As a result, they were ill-equipped to identify some “early warning signs” of shifting seas.  Having meaningful KPI’s will help enable the business owner to closely monitor his or her business.  Cutting-edge business process consulting will involve determining your KPI’s.  Further, business process consulting is used to design and implement the processes as well as to report the KPI’s.

Finally, business process consulting provides the owner recommendations.  Let’s face it, winds change and seas shift.  This requires constant adjustments along the way.  Failure to respond to changes in the economy and underlying market conditions can run you “aground” or push you way off course.  Wise owners will employ business process consulting to help them “stay the course.”

Business process consulting: Step 2. Determine where you want to go.

“If you don’t know where you are headed, any road will get you there.”  Not just another clever saying, but something that has really been my observation.  There are some entrepreneurs that are just “in business” because one day they got tired of “working for the man.”  Or, they started a business because they were clever enough to find a new and better way of doing something.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those scenarios; however, the work doesn’t end there.  Take the time to really think about where you want to go.  It is quite possible to drift on the sea of business for a quarter century (that’s 25 years for you number people) only to find yourself begin to ask these questions: Where am I?  Where am I headed?  I’m tired of “turning the crank.”  I don’t know if I really like what I’m doing, do I?  How am I going to retire?  When can I retire?  Maybe I can try to sell my business?  What is my business worth?

Maybe you have experienced that kind of head talk before.  If you are in this situation, it’s not too late to get some business process consulting to help you work through these questions.  If you are just starting out, please take the time to think through how you will define success.  Ask yourself these questions: What is my exit strategy?  How will I define success?  When will you know you have arrived?

Business process consulting: Step 3. Determine the game plan to get you there.

Have you ever been sailing?  If not, no problem – here’s the point.  Don’t just drift aimlessly on the sea of business.  Be intentional.  Successful sailing means staying on course.  The reason for the sailing analogy is thus; it is part art and part science.  It’s not easy.  You have a rudder (the thing that steers your boat), a mast (vertical support for your sails), a main sail, and a jib sail.  I could list of a bunch of other “parts” but I don’t want to go too far into the weeds.  Let’s keep the main things the main things.  Basically, you harness the wind – which could be coming from any direction – and you use “skill” to employ all of your sail boat’s features to navigate a safe and straight line from port to port.  One does this by using the art of tacking (zig zagging) through the water.  The less of a zig zag – the straighter and quicker the course.

Inexperienced sailors can end up “in the drink,” off course, or taking a long time to get to their destination.  The same thing happens in business.  Here’s the message.  If you are going to go sailing, either take some lessons or hire someone to help you sail.  Similarly, if you are going into business or re-evaluating your course, obtain business process consulting to help you make the experience as safe and as fun as possible.

In business, like in sailing, you are going to come across some shifting currents, wind changes, some rogue waves or two, etc.  Having experienced help on board can make the difference between a fun day at sea or a nightmare.  Blue Elevator™ is here for you and we’ll help you get there!

Business process consulting: Summary

Here’s the point.  As every business owner is different, so is every business.  When its time, or I should say when you are ready, contact Blue Elevator™ for a custom designed plan.  We can help you chart your own course and we’ll help you get there.  Not just ideas – but implementation.  We are just a click away: Contact Us.